Academic Performance of Schools in the United States of America - Research Proposal Example

The paper 'Academic Performance of Schools in the United States of America' is a perfect example of a research proposal on education. 
Over the years, public schools in the United States of America have been performing very poorly, a fact that can be attributed to many factors. One of the factors is the effect of poor performance on the students and the general community economically and socially. For example, bright students are usually transferred to private schools, a fact that reduces the performance of public schools.

Public education is controlled in three major levels, which are the federal, state and local levels. It is compulsory for all children in the United States of America to attend schools. It is mostly free; hence it is funded by the government. Curriculum and standards are jointly set by the respective federal, state and local governments. According to Felner et al (2008), research done in the year 2008 showed that pupils in the public school's education system in the United States of America ranked below average when it came to mathematics and science. In the following year, research was done and proved that students from private high schools in America performed considerably well compared to other students from different countries around the world. This is evidence enough to prove that public schools perform poorly than private schools.

There are various reasons that have led to this poor performance in public schools. One such reason is the fact that when a student in a public school is discovered to have a high Intelligence Quotient (IQ), they are either transferred to private schools by their parents. This happens if they are financially able to do so or are given scholarships by these private schools because they are naturally very bright. This has resulted in public schools lacking bright students to motivate and tutor the average and the below-average students. This, in turn, results in the public schools performing poorly while those in the private sector perform very well as a result of the bright students.

Poor performance in public schools has created a social and economic gap among the youth and the community. This is because students who perform poorly end up not getting into colleges while those in the private sector get into college and undergo good higher education programs. Those who perform poorly go for jobs with bad salaries while those who have gone through higher education get good jobs with good salaries. This has resulted in the different social and economic status as those who transferred to private schools ended up getting good jobs hence earn good money and are able to live a good life. However, this is not the case with those from public schools who ended up getting poor paying jobs (Kate, 2010).

Due to poor performance, the federal government came up with a solution known as Program Improvement (PI). This is where the federal government designed the policy “no child left behind” (Kate, 2010). It aimed to identify public schools that are struggling and detailing a solution for the schools in order for them to reach a target. The program was designed to run for approximately five years. The program resulted in public schools performing better than before and could even now compete with private schools.

Research Question

What is the impact of the program improvement on the academic performance of schools?